Thinking about doing a trade apprenticeship

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I am going to be looking for a job in a few weeks, and I'm thinking of doing a trade apprenticeship. There are lots of advantages to trades: I can get paid good money while I apprentice, I can stay in my city and live with my parents, and your long term prospects are pretty good. They can be physically dangerous, but on the other hand, they are just about my only option unless I want to be a truck driver or be a seasonal laborer in the oilfield (those jobs don't really lead anywhere).

Probably none of those jobs are ideal for AS people... but I need a job. I am intelligent, but have only average mechanical skills so I need to stick to the more physical trades. It is pretty scary thinking about doing a trade... but on the other hand, the prospect of being poor, unemployed, or at a minimum wage job at 30 is far worse. I'm seriously scared of that, and this is my only good training option it seems unless I want to try my luck with riskier and less reliable professions.

Thoughts?

Gaining skills for a trade is defiantly a good idea once gained they will never let you down.
I Apprenticeship I did never has!

I was undiagnosed as a teen - If I'd known what I now know, I'd probably not have done a trade apprectniceship. Looking back now, I know that would have been bad! Doing a trade apprenticeship not only taught me manual skills, but was a helpful socialising experience. I learnt a lot of basic manners and social skills while working with teams in industrial conditions.

I think it's a good idea.

What kind of trade are you thinking of applying for?

Industrial pipefitting. You measure, install, configure piping for gas/water/waste/chemicals.

Im attempting to go for HVAC in southern florida right now, had to quit my job because of excruciatingly inept and uncaring people. a few years back I took classes in HVAC and carpentry just because I was curious, and also got the certs even though I never thought I would need them.
I have worked service jobs like this, and I personally think its great for aspies. I feel very comfortable, the kinds of people they pair you with are usually very fatherly(in the good sense), and usually take care of all the people and have to make the rough decisions for you. The last guy I worked with had an appalling attitude with other people, he was almost barbaric, but we got along great. He NEVER gave me attitude, and always gave me compliments.
If Im not mistaken, people in the trades feel that we are well behaved compared to the kind of "rough" people they usually get for labor, and I have gotten lots of comments about how great it was that I was a perfectionist. There were times where people have blown their tops at other people for not doing what I say, often threatening to fire them. I have twice had a boss take me aside after an altercation with another worker and tell me (precisely, both times) "thats why you are here, to keep them from F-ing up". In any job where quality was important, I have often been kind of between management and being a worker. The trades LOVE people who do quality work. If you have a problem with quality, you can bet they will listen to you over someone else.
So, just be yourself, they really like people who show up on time and actually care about doing good work.
Before I moved from my place to my Dads place to take care of him, I was bombarded by job offers I didnt have the esteem to take. People would tell me that they simply could not get reliable people who showed up on time and did reliable work. Some of them sounded almost desperate to get reliable people.

So, sometime this week I will begin applying to get an apprenticeship down here. The dont tend to advertise because they get bombarded by people who they arent inteested in (extremely shady people in southern florida), so its mainly word of mouth. 1500 HVAC contractors in Dade County alone and not a single apprenticeship listen online or in the papers. Compare to Arizona, They advertise jobs very openly, because they dont get trash.

Ill let you guys know how it goes.

good luck! i went the university route (for a very long time) and, looking back, realize i'd have done better and been much happier in the trades. hope it works out for you.

I hope Im not being too long winded, and this is slightly off topic, but I was offered TWO jobs today through people who have seen my trade work.
I did a bathroom for someone who manages undersea cables, and he offered me a job selling bandwidth. He told me he liked that I was a perfectionist, so that encourages what I was thinking before. I also did work for his GF and she offered me a job selling insurance between insurance companies. I had watched her dogs on occasion before also, so if I take anything from this, it is that people remember trustworthy people.
Im not sure what to make of the offers, I have gone through many changes in the last few months (felt subhuman for years) and I think this may be an effect. I definitely get a lot of comments since I decided to work on my self esteem and things related to it. Ive also been trying to identify others emotions, but respond in the most positive manner regardless of if its NT.
Like I said in another thread, Ive been living/taking care of my dad, who is a very passive person, but has an immense following of friends. He often gives me tips on interaction with people and I have been making notes regardless of if I understand the feelings.
I have been treated much better by people since I have attempted to alter my appearance to appear as a confident and well behaved NT.
I was busy today dealing with a fine for two unregistered trucks on my property, so I wasnt able to go after the HVAC jobs. Im kind of happy I didnt, because these jobs offers were very good for my confidence and I feel much more up to the job hunt now.

BTW, Football season is coming up, and its a good idea to take observations if you want to have talking material with most tradesmen. They almost always have a favorite sport, and if its football it is likely to come up. I know many of you detest sports, but try and think of it in a statistical manner and you wont have any problems.

Well some trades are a lot less dangerous and can be quite profitable like bricklayer/mason. Any of the woodworking related trades have a risk factor but are not very dangerous for someone who is careful. I think both those even tho can be very repetitive could still be interesting in a way (I would never be able to put this into words). I would also avoid truck driver as a career path because all the heavy lifting will have a toll on your back.

I actually have a Bachelor's degree (only 4 years, which has still been too long), and I am licensed to drive trucks. However, I'd still like to go into a trade. I'm definitely looking forward to it!

I dont know if this counts, but I was a helper around an apartment complex for about 5 years while growing up, and it taught me a lot of skills and let me see a little of every field. I would recommend it, since you usually dont have to have too much interaction with people and you usually only work with a few people or even alone much of the time. Its not terribly physical if you dont have to do landscaping.

When I left school I did an apprenticeship as an electrician.

Great idea! It saves years of going to college and piling up debts to come out with a degree and then you STILL can't get a job.
You get paid money from day one.

Let me make a suggestion. Pick a trade where you can either get a job or work for yourself.

An electrician or plumber or carpenter or car mechanic or chef can start his own business and get as big and rich as he is capable of.

Other jobs like say being a nurse or a pipe fitter mean that you have to get a job working for someone else.

A good car mechanic with his own shop can make a hell of a lot more money than an an engineer with a degree and what is more he doesn't have to kiss anyone's backside to get or keep a job.

Out west in the US, they are always looking for journeymen electricians with a Class A CDL to start at around 32.00 an hour. That's one thing this country will need for sure no matter what happens to the economy.

I'm an electrician and it's worked out pretty well for me. I think it also attracts a lot of aspies.

Curiously, I'm still thinking of going back to school for my EE. I think I'd enjoy it more, and any trade will take a toll on the body eventually. I just don't know if it makes good ecenomic sence.

My husband is electrician, but he did that in the military. So none of it really matters in the civilian world. When he got out, we thought he'd qualify for a lot of journeyman positions, but because the Air Force works with dead wire more often than live hot ones, and he didn't get a training to work with live hot ones like everyone else did in his shop, nobody in their right mind would trust him to work independently for safety reasons. If I knew that training would be that important..... Anyway, he then found a job at a plant as Electrical Maintenance, but they refused to train him also for anything more, and then laid him off in one year. He did a lot of work, like a one year project, in a nasty basement and then when he was done, he got laid off, so it was as if they just hired him to do the nasty job. That was Steel Worker's Union, and I hear they are crazy compared to electrical union. So right now, he's going to school looking into welding, but our local electrical union takes time to get into, so I think I'll be pushing him to try to get into that as well. They do selections in March, but then I guess nothing much happens with that until September if you get selected. I can easily see how the work would attract aspies, but I can see the union equally scaring them away. The union is a buddy buddy system anymore, so unless you already know people there, it's hard to get the in.

He thinks the demand for engineers will be low because a lot of people are going into that. I think he was told by a lot of guys at the steelworkers job who were electricians that industrial motors and electronics was the way to go now. I don't know. I feel bad cause I don't quite remember all my husband told me becuase it's kind of greek to me. Either way, I noticed a lot of jobs being advertised for Journeyman, like once you make that you can find a job fairly easily. I think my husband likes to work with exterior more so than interior or alarms only cause the wires are bigger (he has big hands), but those seem almost impossible to get. We used to apply for them with electric companies, and we went to a lot of job interviews, but nothing much happened beyond that. Considering most would require relocation, we gave up because we couldn't afford to travel anymore for an interview.

Anyway, my husband is having a really hard time focusing on what he wants to do now. He enjoyed welding with his dad, and some jobs I've seen for electricians like for them to also know some HVAC and Welding, so I figure it couldn't hurt. As long as he's in school now, he can possibly keep the unemployment longer and collect the GI Bill. Then me in school with the GI Bill, it will pay rent for the time being. At the same time, I worry about what career we are going to focus on because if we just keep doing this whatever is available for now, we aren't going to get anywhere. But like the advice given here, I think welding is something my husband can do as a home business if need be...probably more so than high voltage electrician.

There is very little demand for welders, pipefitters or engineers of any discipline and I don't see that changing anytime soon. Electricians and plumbers are still the best bet but because of the union's buddy and family only admittance policies it is very hard for an aspie to get into these fields. However if you can get in somehow they do like having aspies because we are far more intelligent and detail oriented than the average NT.